Pony ride operator lacking some permits

MAIN STREET ‚Äî She might not have a large number of supporters but Marcy Winograd isn‚Äôt giving up in her fight against pony rides in Santa Monica.

The business license for Tawni‚Äôs Ponies, the only consistently operating pony ride company in Santa Monica, has been expired since 2004 according to City Hall documents originally acquired by Winograd. City records officials confirmed the expired license.

City finance officials are also aware that Tawni‚Äôs Ponies does not have an active business license but were still taking a closer look at the implications by press time.

There is a stipulation in the company‚Äôs contract with City Hall, which was signed in 2006, that requires the owner to pay a $75 flat fee every week but the contract makes no mention of business licenses.

The contract also requires that the operator has an animal permit, which, according city officials, she does not.

More than 10,000 pony rides and petting farm entries have been sold at the Farmers‚Äô Market since July, according to city officials.

Tawni Angel, the owner of the company, did not respond to e-mails and phone calls requesting comment by press time. She has been running pony rides and the petting zoo at the Farmers‚Äô Market for years.

Winograd, a resident and former congressional candidate, claims that pony rides and petting zoos are inhumane. They are made worse, she said, by the fact that children are taught to be cruel to animals.

Last month, Winograd started an online petition to ban pony rides and petting zoos in the city by the sea. To date, the petition has garnered 278 signatures. By comparison, an online petition to reinstate Mark Black, the teacher involved in a physical altercation with a student at Santa Monica High School, got more than 158,000 signatures in less than two weeks.

Angel‚Äôs own online petition defending pony rides ‚Äî created in response to Winograd‚Äôs petition ‚Äî has been signed 734 times.

Last month she defended the zoo and rides to the Daily Press, explaining that many of her animals are rescues that needed homes or would have been slaughtered for food. She takes excellent care of them, she said, and, given the cost of their up-keep, the business only helps her break even.

Winograd organized a protest at the Farmers‚Äô Market in April. Six protesters showed up to the first rally.

On Sunday, Winograd and others called the non-emergency Santa Monica Police Department line. Animal Control sent an officer to the market to check on the situation.

In 1999, a previous Farmers‚Äô Market pony ride operator was arrested by SMPD after it was discovered her animals were living in squalor, according to the Los Angeles Times archives.

“I have suggested in various e-mails to city lawmakers and city management that we either close the pony ride or make it humane and educational by moving the whole operation to a larger venue, such as Virginia Park, where the ponies could be taken off the tether and put on a lead,” Winograd said. “… Ultimately, the city needs an animal welfare commission to look at best practice, to affirm existing laws and policies that protect animals and promote new policies that will serve as models for the rest of the nation.”

Business owners operating within the boundaries of Santa Monica are required to have a business permit and pay taxes to the city, provided they generate enough revenue. While the lack of permitting and licensing is a serious issue because it suggests little oversight of an operation that poses liability risks shouldered by taxpayers, the more pressing issue is whether Santa Monicans want to condone tethering ponies, some with bent or twisted legs that seem to have trouble walking, to metal bars and forcing them to walk in tiny circles for almost four hours. Some might call this modern-day slavery. While I appreciate that the operator may have saved ponies from slaughter, one must understand that overbreeding of ponies and horses for exploitative animal merry-go-rounds and other so-called amusement is one of the main reasons we have a surplus. Approximately 80 of my 278 petition signatures are not from Russia or South Africa but from Santa Monica, more from Venice, Mar Vista and West Los Angeles. Outsiders looking in are confounded as to why an often progressive and visionary city like Santa Monica is engaging in a practice that exploits the voiceless. We are better than this.

Whether or not there is a business permit this is animal cruelty and should be stopped. Animals are not put on this earth for our viewing and riding pleasure. Santa Monica is supposed to be forward thinking and progressive. It’s time to end this sad forced labor.

The pony ride is exploitive. Last Sunday (5/4/2014) 2 of the animals should not have been working. The tan with the roan behind was tender on the front left. One of the small black ponies has a notable left rear action. As the foot leaves the ground it snaps inward. This hard worker also rests the same foot suspiciously when standing. See for yourselves if this is good clean entertainment or creulty.
18 years of horseshoeing has given me a bit of an eye for lameness. Robin Doyno